Emerging Technologies Consulting

Yesterday, I started to write some of my thoughts about what the impact on colleges of the current economic climate might be.  I realized that aside from knowing about furloughs and layoffs and salary freezes, I didn’t know much about it.  That is, until this article from the San Francisco Gate.  There are fewer instructors and therefore fewer classes, so the classes are either much larger or students are taking things they hadn’t intended to take–a boon for Latin as one teacher said.  Some students have decided to postpone college altogether.  Many colleges did not limit enrollments despite having fewer teachers in place, since higher enrollments does mean some increased revenue.  But what kind of education is a student getting when they’re crammed into a classroom meant to hold 40 students with 50 or more students.  And what about those who are postponing either enrolling or graduating?  That’s going to cost them in the long run.  I know many colleges didn’t have a choice, but it strikes me that this could be more than just a short term problem.